Ultimate Taliban lunacy

[Justin Schwartz]

It's equally wrong to take and carefully preserve something, making it 
available to all, as to destroy it? I don't understand. Btw, if the Brits 
had not taken and kept the Elgin Marbles, they would have melted from the 
pollution, like the rest of the Parthenon. So while insensitive and 
imperialist, it was a good thing that they did it. Now  that the Greeks 
would probably take care of the things, the Brits should probably give them 
back, but I can't be sorry that that they kept them. Besides, what is the 
claim of the modern Greeks on the the Marbles? There was no "Greek nation" 
when the Marbles were carved, and the modern Athenians probably have about 
as much of a connection with the Greeks of the Age of Pericles as I do with 
the Hebrews of the era of King David.

Imperialistically and insensitively yours,

jks


>
>Appalling as the destruction of statues in Afghanistan is, I'm surprised
>there hasn't been more mention of other instances of
>destruction/appropriation of religious or historical artifacts.  Britain
>taking and hanging on to the Elgin marbles seems equally wrong, if not as
>irreversible, and I'm guessing that a fair number of Native American
>artifacts and sites have been destroyed in the US.  Aren't the Taliban's
>actions just an extreme example of an all too common insensitivity to other
>cultures' values.
>
>David.

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